Hyundai WIA(011210) said on the 7th that it will supply unmanned forklifts to an actual manufacturing site. The unmanned forklift was built to not only move on its own but also load goods onto pallets and perform loading and unloading work.
Hyundai WIA's unmanned forklift will be applied for the first time at Kia Autoland Hwaseong starting in May next year. Hyundai WIA said it is the first in Korea to succeed in supplying an unmanned forklift capable of fully unmanned loading and unloading.
Hyundai WIA built the unmanned forklift by leveraging its mass-production experience with Autonomous Driving mobile robots (AMR). It was built to roam inside the worksite and load goods using lidar sensors, vision sensors, and safety scanners.
It also used Digital Twin technology, which creates a simulation factory, to enable the unmanned forklift to generate optimal routes. With the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm, it can recognize pallets even when they are moved differently from the target position.
Hyundai WIA's unmanned forklift can carry up to 4t of goods. This is similar to the maximum load capacity of mid-size forklifts most commonly used in manufacturing sites. In addition, the maximum speed is about 6.5 kph, set to the safe speed within factories.
Hyundai WIA aims to establish a total "mobile robot" solution that includes unmanned forklifts, AMRs that have already been commercialized, and parking robots, and to expand sales into global markets.